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I'm Thinking of Ending Things
I've just finished watching the new Charlie Kaufman movie that just came out on Netflix "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" and boy, it is a mind-bender. I read a follow-up interview with Kaufman too just to see if there was any clarity about things that I was missing by the end but I feel like I understood exactly what I understood.
This isn't a horror movie per-se but boy it sure feels a little bit like one.
The movie itself feels like a stage play which isn't really inaccurate. The story (which is an adaptation of a novel by Ian Reid) is about a girl, Lucy, who is going to visit her boyfriend's parents for the first time. But that's just the surface of what's happening in this movie.
I'm going to try and do this without spoilers now, but I'd LOVE to talk to people about this movie in the comments. So if you've watched it PLEASE comment and let me know what you thought.
On the surface of this story of Lucy and Jake going to his parent's farmhouse for dinner, we hear this internal monologue from Lucy as she thinks (and repeats) "I'm thinking of ending things". She carries on in this way while her boyfriend Jake tries to engage her in some small talk during their snowy drive out to the farmhouse where his parents grew up, his former childhood home. Dinner at the farmhouse seems... strained. His parents take forever to come down the stairs, his mother seems very nervous and high-strung and through their discussions during and after dinner it's obvious that things aren't normal. It's dream-like as Lucy's name and her profession drift from Variations of Lucy and from physics to poetry to art. As the way Lucy's person shifts so do her clothes and her hair.
But she's not the only personality shifting, while Jake stays somewhat static, his parents do not. And as Lucy focuses more on trying to figure out what's going on around her, her internal monologue slows and lessons until she's just as dreamlike as parents and the farmhouse itself.
Intercut with these scenes are one of an old janitor working at the old highschool Jake went to. We see him tending to the school mostly ignored by the students during the day and then alone at night, mopping the floors. At one point he watches some of the students rehearsing part of Oklahoma! and another we cut into the television show he's watching while he eats lunch or dinner.
And then... there's the drive home from Jake's house. Things become slower and less clear and we're often watching Jake and Lucy from outside the car, outside during a snowstorm, driving which enhances the very shifting and odd conversation they have about their visit and Lucy seems briefly to come back to herself. She seems to remember that she's 'thinking of ending things'.
Oh, it's weird and frightening and reminds me vaguely of a Pahalnuik or Danielewski novel where things are not what they seem on the surface. Jake's parents are played by David Thewlis and Toni Collette who are phenomenal, and the two lead characters are just... when I say it's like a stage play, I mean their scenes together. They meander, but to a point. They get these long sections of dialogue that had to have been difficult to both recite and also embody.
I told Matt when it was over that I know he would've hated it but I do wish that he'd watched it with me just so I'd have someone else to talk about it with because it's so interesting to dissect. I can't classify it as a horror movie really, when it's more like an anxiety dream put on film. I get that's kind of Kaufman's style, but it's been more clear than in this. I hope other people watch it and come back to tell me what they thought.
This isn't a horror movie per-se but boy it sure feels a little bit like one.
The movie itself feels like a stage play which isn't really inaccurate. The story (which is an adaptation of a novel by Ian Reid) is about a girl, Lucy, who is going to visit her boyfriend's parents for the first time. But that's just the surface of what's happening in this movie.
I'm going to try and do this without spoilers now, but I'd LOVE to talk to people about this movie in the comments. So if you've watched it PLEASE comment and let me know what you thought.
On the surface of this story of Lucy and Jake going to his parent's farmhouse for dinner, we hear this internal monologue from Lucy as she thinks (and repeats) "I'm thinking of ending things". She carries on in this way while her boyfriend Jake tries to engage her in some small talk during their snowy drive out to the farmhouse where his parents grew up, his former childhood home. Dinner at the farmhouse seems... strained. His parents take forever to come down the stairs, his mother seems very nervous and high-strung and through their discussions during and after dinner it's obvious that things aren't normal. It's dream-like as Lucy's name and her profession drift from Variations of Lucy and from physics to poetry to art. As the way Lucy's person shifts so do her clothes and her hair.
But she's not the only personality shifting, while Jake stays somewhat static, his parents do not. And as Lucy focuses more on trying to figure out what's going on around her, her internal monologue slows and lessons until she's just as dreamlike as parents and the farmhouse itself.
Intercut with these scenes are one of an old janitor working at the old highschool Jake went to. We see him tending to the school mostly ignored by the students during the day and then alone at night, mopping the floors. At one point he watches some of the students rehearsing part of Oklahoma! and another we cut into the television show he's watching while he eats lunch or dinner.
And then... there's the drive home from Jake's house. Things become slower and less clear and we're often watching Jake and Lucy from outside the car, outside during a snowstorm, driving which enhances the very shifting and odd conversation they have about their visit and Lucy seems briefly to come back to herself. She seems to remember that she's 'thinking of ending things'.
Oh, it's weird and frightening and reminds me vaguely of a Pahalnuik or Danielewski novel where things are not what they seem on the surface. Jake's parents are played by David Thewlis and Toni Collette who are phenomenal, and the two lead characters are just... when I say it's like a stage play, I mean their scenes together. They meander, but to a point. They get these long sections of dialogue that had to have been difficult to both recite and also embody.
I told Matt when it was over that I know he would've hated it but I do wish that he'd watched it with me just so I'd have someone else to talk about it with because it's so interesting to dissect. I can't classify it as a horror movie really, when it's more like an anxiety dream put on film. I get that's kind of Kaufman's style, but it's been more clear than in this. I hope other people watch it and come back to tell me what they thought.
Re: My thoughys - spoilers
We see the old man is fond of stories, with the pretend movie ending. And we see him at the beginning watching this women, Lucy, down on the street.
Yes, and she seems like a completely different person in that moment.It's in the car that she transforms.
I also read that in the book, we learn a bit more about the janitor/Jake's life, that he did become a biologist but his mental health issues cost him his job. However, others have noted that the movie seems to have done a different take on that, so it's unclear whether or not that's the intention. I think either way mental illness explains some of it, whether it's dementia or other problems. (Jake's mother also seemed "off", and I got mental illness vibes from her. But this also may be that he's trying to clumsily fit her into the narrative, rather than an indication of her true persona.)
As if she's taken on a life of her own even within the confines of the relationship he's trying to force in his own mind. Like his own creation is getting the upper hand on him. Which I really liked.
Ooh, well spotted.
I still think that the rom com couple we see had at least some basis in reality, BUT I can also see it simply being his love of media. He wants to have had a similar story. He may not even notice that the woman at the end of that movie didn't even look very happy. Or maybe he DOES notice, and that's why his portrayal of "Lucy" (of many names) is all over the place.
I should give this a complete rewatch, as I mostly revisited certain scenes. I did initially come away with a different impression of what was going to happen - before they left, I assumed the house was causing the time distortion, more so than Jake/the janitor's mind, and that the woman would eventually piece together that something wasn't right and get out, set things right. That initial perception probably influenced my later interpretation as well, even once I worked out that it had nothing to do with the house as much as the world.
I did notice the changing academic interests, though I don't think I caught the line about her not liking poetry before reciting poetry. However, I don't think I thought about it as conflicting immediately, because I've actually seen so many shows and movies where the "intellectual" character is intellectual in all things. Which is partially inaccurate - it CAN absolutely be the case, however it's often the case that people have their fields, too. So clearly here it was meant to be inconsistent, but I'm so used to that inconsistency it flew right over my head.
The name thing, I had assumed, was that she was hiding her identity - though it soon became evident that something more was going on.
So that might be why I saw her as more real, too - because while I figured out the janitor was either Jake or connected to Jake pretty quickly, I also expected the woman to have her own story, not BE the story, and maybe that's where it was easier to leap to her being many people, rather than a complete figment of Jake's imagination.
However, I definitely think it can be interpreted many ways, which is the beauty of it.
Re: My thoughys - spoilers